December 13, 2010

So, I’m one of the writing lab tutors at my school and a fellow student asked me, “I feel like I never write enough. How can I write more?” (paraphrased statement) So, I sent her THIS … it’s long but I figured … this is my blog and I can post what I please, with no regard for my readers … lol … j/k … I love you and I’ll write about whatever you want me to write about, if you just tell me what to write about but that’s an entirely different blog … nevertheless … this is what I came up with … ENJOY!

This may be long because I want to be sure that I give you as many ideas, as specifically, as I can.

Good ideas to write more:

Ask a question in the document and answer it.

Research one more article/chapter/book and incorporate one or two ideas from this.

Look at the articles that you reference, if they ask any questions related to the purpose of your document, attempt to answer the questions.

Ask yourself: “What else can I say?”

Try to be as wordy as possible.

Have 3-5 ideas that you would like to remark upon.

For each thing that you want to remark upon have 3 things that support or are related to the remarks. This will create the basic 1-2 page paper that consists of 3-5 paragraph, with introductions, 3 supporting statements and conclusive statements for each paragraph. Also you should include a final paragraph that summarizes the key point from each of the previous paragraphs, with a conclusive statement for the whole document. (If I’m being lazy I’ll take the conclusive statements and summarize each of those.)

Also, in the same vein, a great thing to do is to have an outline such as:

Paragraph 1 (This paragraph could summarize what the paper is about/what the purpose for writing it is; sort of like the abstract of a journal article. You can make this 5 sentences and in the same format as the bullet below. Each “support sentence” would be a brief introduction to each of the “Ideas” that the paragraphs are about. Also, the “Conclusion statement/sentence” in this paragraph can be a brief synopsis of the paper; this is called a thesis statement, it is often one of the last things you write; since, by the end of the document you should have one cohesive message and be able to state it succinctly. You can also replicate this sentence at the end of the document, so that you bring the document to a succinct close.)

Support Paragraph 2/Idea 1 (which was mentioned in the introductory paragraph)

Introductory statement (this should introduce the idea that you are going to support)

Support Sentence/Idea 1

Support Sentence/Idea 2

Support Sentence/Idea 3 (you can have more than 3 support sentences/ideas but you should nothave fewer than 3. Each of these ideas should provide further support to corroborate the points of the paragraph)

Conclusion Statement (this could/should provide a summary of the paragraph; it can also, simultaneously, be a way to segue into the next paragraph)

Support Paragraph 3-??/Idea 2-?? …

Conclusive/Summary/Future Ideas/Et Cetera Paragraph (this is a good paragraph to summarize your arguments, provide a conclusion, provide suggestions for the future and, even, ask questions that you did not answer but may be good for future exploration)

This is all about pre-planning. Pull out the ideas that you want to argue for/against or present in the document. Create an outline of each of these ideas and at least 3 supportive ideas. Write the introductory paragraph with each of the support ideas being briefly mentioned. Write each support paragraphs in the standard paragraph format. Write the conclusive paragraph. Create a works cited/references page; include any graphs, charts, etc. as appendices.

If you feel like you do not have enough after doing this, go back and add one more idea; ask a question in the document and answer it; research one more article/chapter/book and incorporate one or two ideas from this; Look at the articles that you reference, if they ask any questions related to the purpose of your document, attempt to answer the questions. REMEMBER: Anything that you add has to be able to flow with the document; so place it accordingly, and if you cannot place it, attempt to segue into it, before the conclusion paragraph.